2. 2
Businessesthroughoutthecountryhavesharedexperiences
ofthinkingdigital,showcasinghowmuchofanimpactsimple
adjustmentscanmake.
Meet and learn from
our Digital Champions
B
ritish enterprise is booming, and this is in no
small part down to the growing community
of entrepreneurs not afraid to back their big
idea and take on established industry
heavyweights.
One of the biggest contributors to the growth
of SMEs in the UK is the lowering of barriers to
entry, the roadblocks previously in place stopping
ambitious business builders from taking those
early steps.
These days, armed with only a laptop and a
good idea, businesses can be up and running
within days – rather than weeks, months or years.
The tools today’s entrepreneurs have at their
disposal would make them the envy of business
leaders a few decades ago.
However, with so many options available to
help with business growth, a considered and
planned approach is required. Our 30 Digital
Champions initiative, held in partnership with
Microsoft over six months, has been all about
finding British companies, and the individuals at
the helm of each, which are leading the way in
progressive digital thinking.
Whether it is a new business disrupting a
stagnant space, or an established SME thinking
differently about a particular business process, the
companies brought together throughout the
campaign have served as great inspiration for
anyone else wondering how digital can be a big
enabler.
We’ve profiled businesses in the food and
drinks space, health and wellness areas, and even
one renting out restoredVW camper vans.
Entrepreneurs young and more experienced have
explained where technologies such as CRM
system or video conferencing have made a big
difference.
However, we wanted to find out more – push a
select few businesses on not just what is working
now, but what they think will be a game-changer in
the future.To do that, we brought together five of
our favourite 30 Digital Champion business
leaders for an intimate roundtable discussion.
The questions posed were all about where their
companies are going in the next few years, what
technological tools have the most potential going
forward and the factors holding them back from
making further investments in digital services.
Their responses were enlightening and
thought-provoking, proving that today’s SME
owners and managers are taking digital seriously
and making sure they are fully versed on what is
out there in the market.
This digital guide has pulled together that
roundtable discussion and provided a snapshot of
each five companies. From Jalil Rahman and his
inspiring story of celebrating British shoe design to
Nakul Sharma’s innovative use ofAirbnb as a
platform for growth, each have something
different to say on the topic.
What we hope you take away is some exposure
to relevant digital technologies and a feeling that
entrepreneurs these days have a wide variety of
tools at their disposal – it just comes down to
working out which are the right ones and then
using them efficiently.
Hunter Ruthven
Editor, Real Business
6. 4
Digital champions
Aveqia
Chillisauce
Hostmaker
Love the Sales
Nosh Detox
Watchfinder
Augustus Pili
Don't Buy Her
Flowers
IsosHealth
MADE-BY
Shieldyourself
Wild Knight
English Vodka
Backyard
Cinema
Double Dutch
Josephine
Home
Mallow &
Marsh
The Cornwall
Camper Company
T Plus
Briqs
Fat Buddha
Store
Katherine
Elizabeth
Media Legends
Group
The Counter
Smoke BBQ
Claw
Fisher Jones
Greenwood
Look Fabulous
Forever
Ms. Cupcake
VaioPak Group
Mash Direct
7. 30 Digital Champions
Video insight from
the experts
Clickontheimageleft
tofindoutfrom
Microsoft’sUKSMB
director,Glenn
Woolaghan,what
technologyhethinks
willhavethemost
potentialforgrowth
businessesgoing
forward.
Clickontheimage right
tofindoutfrom
TechQuarters’headof
businessdevelopment,
MartynWhite,whathe
believesisholdingSMBs
backfrommaking
investmentsin
technology?
10. 8
The twin
sisters going
global with
Richard
Branson
It’snotoftenafounderisthe
literalfaceofabrand,butfor
twinsistersRaissaandJoyce
DeHaas,theyarethe
inspirationbehindtheirdrink.
W
hile the Dutch sisters can now count
billionaireVirgin founder Richard
Branson as a business contact – which
we’ll come to later – the pair had difficulties
getting recognition for their products in the
beginning.
Double Dutch specialises in premium soft
drinks, mixers for gins, vodkas and tequilas
specifically, and Raissa De Hass explained that
securing credibility was a problem initially.
“As a drinks company you really need
wholesalers and distributors, but they won’t list
you if you don’t have customers.That was the
biggestchallenge inthe beginning. I think because
it’s such a dominated market with the likes of
Coca-Cola, it’s hard to get credibility as a small
startup in the industry,” she said.
They set up in London at the end of 2014,
having studied at University College London, and
produced the first product batch in February 2015.
In order to generate business, De Haas recalled
there was a lot of knocking on doors, which
LinkedIn came in particularly helpful for in terms
of reaching contacts in the industry.
Sector: Food and drink
Founded:2014
Size: Under ten employees
Name:DoubleDutch
11. 9
30 Digital Champions
The brand building strategy soon started to take
shape and a deal was struck with Fortnum & Mason,
which provided the credibility the pair were looking
for. From there, others began to follow and Double
Dutch is now be found in the likes of Harvey Nicholls,
InterContinental Hotels and more.
In terms of taking the brand forward, the sisters
are experimenting with product development to
cater to a wider variety of alcohol tastes.“We’re
looking for new flavours for darker spirits and also
focusing on international expansion,” De Haas said.
“We’re in six countries now and at the end of the
year look to be in 15 countries.The US andAsia are
key. Because the bottles are such a small margin, it’s
a big volume business approach – we need to get the
sales and production up to drive costs down in order
to be competitive.”
In addition to the home soil of the UK, Double
Dutch has already pushed into Belgium, the
Netherlands, Spain, Cyprus and Italy.The company
has also unlocked the door to enter the US –
something that was achieved by winningVirgin
Startup’s Foodpreneur Festival in autumn 2015.
The event resulted in the pair securing the
blessing ofVirgin mastermind Richard Branson, as
they won the opportunity to fly toAmerica where
they would pitch forTarget. Grabbing the moment
with all four hands, the sisters successfully won over
the retail giant and their products will be trialled in
300 stores, while there will be the chance to expand
that to all locations – of which there are 2,000.
De Haas said:“The US is by far the best market for
a brand like Double Dutch to grow in.We flew over
with theVirgin team and they helped with pitching
workshops, discussing things like what retail
companies are looking for, which was really useful.”
The duo is now in direct contact withTarget
withoutVirgin acting as a go-between, and the main
difference that has been found with operating in the
US and UK is the change of packaging.With a
four-pack available, which will support the goal of
increasing sales volumes, all information is also
bolder to grab US customers when trials start in
October 2016.
In terms of technology that will help the business
on its impressive growth journey, De Haas is looking
to bolster infrastructure with services like the cloud.
“We’re such a physical product, but all of the
information that comes with that can go to the cloud.
Sometimes problems that occur could be around
labelling or late delivery of ingredients,” she said.
“Having one infrastructure in place to integrate
would improve the supply chain – at the moment
they’re all separate with a supplier for ingredients,
supplier for labels and a supplier for bottles, which
isn’t ideal because it means a lot of planning.
Automating would make things a lot easier, so we’re
speaking with other brands who have been there for
advice.”
She detailed that technology investments can
sometimes be placed on the backburner because of
the expense involved.That said, data security is of
particular importance, given the sharing of content
online along the supply chain.
“We really want to generate a proper
infrastructure to put everything together with one
system, so everyone can add their input and see how
the process is coming along,” De Haas added.
With the sisters running the ship, a handful of
sales people on the ground in Manchester, Leeds,
Liverpool, Birmingham and London, Double Dutch is
still keeping things lean.And with travelling taking
place for the twins every 10-12 days, a key
investment on their radar to ensure a smooth
operation will be the hire of an operations executive
who can take charge when they’re generating brand
growth.This will ultimately ensure things remain
“perfectly balanced” for the ambtious duo as they
move forward in the drinks world.
12. 1010
AugustusPili’sfounderwasaself-taughtdesignerwhowantedto
createacompanythatwouldreflectasmanyofhisexperiences,
andasmuchofhispersonality,aspossible.
World-famousmusicians
androyaltyarebuying
fromthisone-manbrand
J
alil Rahman, founder ofAugustus Pili, was
inspiredtostarthisownbusinessinJanuary
2015 after he struggled to find shoes that
had the type of personality he craved.“It always
seemed like they came in two extremes – your
standard classic brogues and then your Cuban
heels with glitter,” he said.
The manufacturing side of the product first
came about in November 2014, after he fleshed
out the brand’s concept and presented the ideas
to friends and family. Encouraged by strong
endorsements, he sought the assistance of the
British FootwearAssociation to locate production
in the UK.
With the help of the association’s CEO, John
Saunders, Rahman found a family-run business
that had been established in Northampton in the
1800s, which eventually became his
manufacturing partner – and even before
production of the shoes began, technology
proved to be crucial.
“In the early days,” he explained,
“Skype was the reason I got connected to
my manufacturing partner. I pitched my
idea over the video tool to the factory’s
team.Aside from that, a really good,
solid PowerPoint presentation got
people convinced to gamble on
Sector: Fashion
Founded: 2015
Size:One
Name:AugustusPili
13. INSPIRING AND
CHAMPIONING
HIGH-GROWTH
BUSINESSES
SINCE 1997
30 Digital Champions
11
my offering.And while on the topic of
communication, Facebook Messenger
has proved invaluable in terms of
connecting with customers as far
afield as Kuwait,Angola, Ghana
and Nigeria.”
Being able to sell a luxury
product to Ghana, or even the ability
to find a manufacturing firm so
quickly, would have been almost
impossible ten years ago, Rahman suggested.
Unveiling more about his current partnership,
Rahman said:“The machinery is 100 years old, it’s
like a theatre. I’ve made pink suede shoes, which
the factory workers seem uncomfortable in
making. It’s funny though, as everyone in the
factory knows when one of my fabrics has been
delivered. Nonetheless, it has endeared staff to
the project.”
That the manufacturing firm also had a
legacy and heritage of its own was of
great importance to Rahman given
thatAugustus Pili is said to be the
reincarnation of classic English
craftsmanship.“I want British
footwear to get the recognition it
truly deserves, and soAugustus Pili
was born from the thought ‘what if
the British men’s shoe could be reborn
today?’”
Rahman said:“If tradition needs renewal to
keep it relevant, I believeAugustus Pili will have
the authority to challenge it to inspire rather than
define what a shoe can be.”
And the single most important aspect of
building this brand and carving out a bigger
market, Rahman explained, was by taking
on board a digital approach. Digital
platforms such as Facebook have
providedAugustus Pili with a true
level playing field when it comes to
global engagement and potential
for conversions, Rahman said. He
added that, given the firm’s current
focus on building its ecommerce
platform, tools such as Shopify and
OpenCart had been key.
Social media has also been
instrumental to the company’s
growth.After launching the brand
publicly at the British Fashion
Council’s seasonal event London
Collections Men in January 2015,
Rahman made it a priority to set up
company pages on Facebook and
Instagram.
“This was a decision which proved to be
crucial to our current success within social media.
And through such means I’ve managed to secure
business from global musicians and international
royalty,” he said.
But let’s also not forget that in some way
“technology” helped madeAugustus Pili’s shoes
–“It’s just very old technology and traditional
techniques”, Rahman stressed.“However, I could
not found this company at all without the
enabling power of the modern era’s
digital technology.”
At the same time, Rahman cited
timing as one of the biggest
hurdles the company needed to
jump. However, this has been
made easier through the use of
digital technology and lean
principles, which has keptAugustus Pili
as responsive as possible.
“For example, we are able to acquire feedback
from fans on new design samples before
committing,” he said.As crucial as the online
world may be, Rahman emphasised that a
combination of bricks and clicks was sure-fire way
to scale the firm: "Our ambition is to truly mean
something to our customers and add to
their lives.“We have already got a
roster of men doing interesting
things with their lives together to
join our first cohort of
ambassadors."
Rahman seems to be building
digital into the DNA of the brand,
and we await to see what impact
digital will have on the "old world".
14. Sector:Hospitality
Founded: 2014
Size:50 employees
Name:Hostmaker
1212
H
aving climbed the ranks and held
employment for a variety of established
hotel chains, he was well aware ofAirbnb’s
arrival on the market and the feeling of unease it
had caused some establishments.
As a user of the home rental platform since 2012,
Sharma was in the midst of writing a paper on how
the service had made an impact on traditional
hotels. His research allowed him to discover that the
ages of hosts and travellers alike were anything
from twenties right to seventies.
Sensing a“real alternative to the hotel
experience”, Sharma and his wife placed their
home onAirbnb to use it as a test lab, which
resulted in the creation of Hostmaker – a hospitality
service designed to offer unrivalled housekeeping
support forAirbnb hosts.
Launched in 2014, Hostmaker has grown
significantly to 50 members of staff over the past
two years, and expanded beyond its London
borders to now also serve Rome, Paris and
Barcelona.
Sharma detailed:“We have teams on the
ground to ensure services are carried out and we
support 500 homes across the four cities. Growth is
double digit month-on-month and, asAirbnb
expands, our niche is growing.”
With Sharma’s experience in strategy and
management rather than engineering, he calls
himself as a“non-technical founder” and said the
business was able to scale to £1m in revenue using
An invite
from Airbnb
made it
clear this
hospitality
service had
something
special
HostmakerfounderNakul
Sharmahasworkedinthe
hospitalityindustryforovera
decade–acareerthatstarted
offwithluxuryhotelchain
Starwood.
15. 13
30 Digital Champions
free online tools, including documents, camera and
video.The company closed a second funding round
of £1.5m eight months ago.
“The technical challenge for a non-tech founder
has been huge.We got the business off the ground
because of industry experience and I knew we didn’t
need online to start the company off,” said Sharma.
“For me, the housekeepers are my developers.
Every four days they’re the ones turning a home
around for the night. It doesn’t matter if I have
beautiful website if customers come back to find
dirty homes.”
The rapid growth led to a high-pressure
environment, which saw Sharma seek outside
assistance.That in itself was an arduous task he
revealed, with many agencies unable to
understand the company’s
needs.
“We struggled a lot in
finding a partner who
would understand our
growth pace, which had
reached 50 per cent month-on-month,” he said.That
rapid scale meant that for every problem solved, a
new one would arise again.
“It took me a month to explain a problem to an
outside partner and by then it was something else,
so it was a huge challenge. It was a scenario of ‘do I
find a CTO or developer in-house or go to an outside
agency?’”
After finding a partner that was deemed
trustworthy, one located in Nepal, the event of the
April 2015 earthquake threw communications off of
the grid and the business was off track for a month.
Sharma said it got to a point where the changing
situations meant six months of work, worth around
£30,000-£50,000, had to be scrapped.
Three key methods that helped Hostmaker
survive were email, shared drives and video
conferences. Sharma said:“We were tracking keys
to homes with BarCloud tech and using calendars
– that helped us survive and got us off the ground.”
There were even times when Uber was used to
transfer keys. Tech aside, Sharma had two
approaches to the business that worked wonders.
“We didn’t spend money on marketing until month
11 – the operation is your marketing,” he insisted.
Secondly, the gift of time was used.“In our first
week, we won our very first bit of business, it was
just me going to see the customer who had found
the website.While a housekeeper was cleaning her
home I spent three hours chatting to the customer.
You’d think it’s making me £40, and I was spending
three hours of my day there with one customer.”
But, the customer was so impressed, Hostmaker
received outstanding feedback, which led to even
larger recognition – Airbnb came knocking.
He continued:“That customer wrote us a
page-long review on a forum and
I got a call fromAirbnb in San Francisco in our first
week – that was a huge moment for the business.”
Three months later and Sharma was invited to
SiliconValley, which assured him Hostmaker
was onto something
special, while highlighting the fact
that even in the digital age, a friendly and
helpful customer service is
always welcome.
16. Name:Chillisauce
Sector:Events
Founded:2001
Size: 100+ employees
14
B
y delivering innovative,
forward-thinking and often
exclusive experiences and
events, Chillisauce has become a
market leader in the stag and hen
party industry. Representing its
15th year of consecutive growth,
2016 has seen the company
witness major expansion, so it
doesn’t take much to see that
change is brewing – and indeed,
at our Microsoft 30 Digital
Champions roundtable, Baddiley
emphasised that while
technology has always been at
the centre of of the business, it
has recently invested heavily in
IT to streamline processes and
ensure a smoother customer
journey.
To bat the competition away
with a stick, Baddiley claimed
team managers had the freedom
to innovate and develop new
ways of increasing their
departmental efficiency – this, he
said, was what led the company
to often keep ahead of
competitors and stay at the
forefront of its industry.“It’s
particularly key if your business
is heavily focused around the
internet and technology, where
user habits are forever changing
at a lightning pace,” he
explained.
“As people adapt more and
become familiar to new
technologies, communications
and purchase habits, they
develop higher expectations, so
you find yourself in a never-
ending race.”
Of course, this means staying
ahead of the game when it
comes to the type of technology
used within the office as well.
From theTalkDesk phone system,
toAnalytics from Google and
Spicing up weekends for
stags, hens, corporate firms
with international events
JamesBaddiley,founderofChillisauce,started thebusinessina
bedroom13yearsago.It'ssincegrownintoamulti-millionpound
enterprise–andplanstogofurtherwithalittlehelpfromdigital.
17. 30 Digital Champions
heatmapping, Chillisauce is
evidently an example of a
non-tech firm that has used the
digital world to its advantage
– whether it be to lighten the load
for consumers or its own staff.
Nifty tools seem to be a key
enabler, with Baddiley citing
Google Docs –“a way to get
people off email as much as
possible” – and project
management platformWrike as
quick-fire ways to increase
collaboration among the team
and offshore developers.
“We use Crazy Egg for
heatmaps and Qualaroo for direct
user feedback,” Baddiley
explained.“I'm also heavily
involved in the SEO side of our
business which is vitally
important, so I am always dipping
in and out of the analytical tools
we use such as OpenSiteExplorer,
MozTools, SEMRush and
Majestic.
“I also encourage the use of
Feedly and Pocket for reading lists
and I'm a big fan of HipChat and
Skype for fast communication. Of
course, when you start out,
communication is not a problem
as you probably only ever sit 20
feet from the furthest person in
the office.
“As you get bigger, you find
communication becomes a lot
more difficult – and you start
getting the dreaded ‘CC all’
emails, which cause large
productivity problems.We are
trying to move away from email
in a lot of cases, but it’s so
ingrained into people’s mindset
that it's challenging to make the
shift.”
Indeed, scaling a business
with a variety of partners, from
hotels to farmers, comes with
added challenges.
“The foundation of our
business is firmly in the travel
sector which means working with
a very diverse range of suppliers,”
Baddiley explained.“This means
the levels of technology used by
our suppliers varies enormously.
This is a real challenge as we need
to try and unify information from
global distribution systems to
pen and paper notebooks into a
single system.
“In general, we find the the
travel business technology
options to be very disseminated
with a huge number of options
overlapping each other, without a
single point solution to cover all
our needs." Enter apparent
lifesaver MongoDB, an open
source database that uses a
document-oriented data model.
That, and the firm created an
application with the sole purpose
of helping to remove the need to
send a plethora of diagrams a
developer’s way.
“I can just go in and build it,”
Baddiley said.“It took quite a
while but it allows us to build
much faster.We don’t have to
bother developers for something
that can take days and weeks to
get done.”
Chillisauce still has much
room to grow, and Baddiley is
convinced technology is the
building block to international
success.
